Shafiqa Wahedi named pioneer female farmer

13/02/2018

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Shafiqa Wahedi, one of the professional women farmers, who had good achievements and activity in agriculture sector, won the award of pioneer woman farmer.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation, has introduced Shafiqa Wahedi to a trip to Thailand for its successful activities in the field of agriculture, where she was honored by the prince of Thailand and awarded the pioneer woman farmer statue to her.

According to a report from the Kabul Times reporter, at the 2nd women’s empowerment conference in agriculture, Shafiqa Wahedi was honored by the first lady Rula Ghani in the ceremony and awarded the statue of pioneer woman farmer to her.

Ms. Wahedi talking to his activities in the field of agriculture, she said that due to economic problems that she had was able to learn educational programs which was launched by the Ministry of Agriculture for women interested in agriculture. The programs that were taught to women were gardening, fruit and vegetable processing, marketing of these products that women in agriculturist learnt and with the products which she obtained, was selling it on the market and helped her family’s economy.

Shafiqa is a widow and a mother of 5 children, now she has the necessary skills in the field of agriculture, and she trained women in the gardening, fruit and vegetables processing, and sold their products to the market.

Her message to other women is that they should use the opportunities to work in the field of agriculture and participate in the economy of the country and stand by their own feet as well as serve their families and the country.

At the conference, Nazira Rahman, head of household economy, about the second national conference on the empowerment of women in agriculture said that taking into account the comprehensive leadership of the Afghan government in the area of changing women’s lives and their active role in the economic cycle of women’s empowerment program in the country’s agriculture sector, this program was launched in central and 14 provinces of the country at the start of the National Unity Government in several groups work was created for women.

She called women’s role in the agricultural sector one of the crucial and effective issues, agriculture is a vital sector and key author of economic growth, and women have an important role to play at all stages of the process, such as cultivating, as well as managing production process, packaging and food security.

Increasing the working groups of women in agriculture will be beneficial in reducing the poverty of families and will improve the lives of women in villages and in the capital, Nazira stated.

It is worth mentioning that the working group on women’s empowerment in agriculture has been established to reduce hunger and poverty, and has been presenting several programs in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture to date.

The Ministry of Agriculture in order to support women and their income has created 51,891 gardens across the country and 589 school gardens in 18 provinces and 140 cold warehouses for 3,489 women peasant as well as for 3600 farmers from 23 provinces, 23 agricultural education centers have been built and established. According to Ministry of Agriculture officials in 8 provinces, for 1274 women farmers saffron cultivation ground has been prepared. And in 31 provinces of the country for 27,345 women farmers in order to growth poultry chickens have been distributed to them.

Similarly, for 3,000 women dairy cattle were also distributed by the Ministry of Agriculture, and in Badakhshan province for 297 women were provided with bee farms, and also for 47,806 women farmers, drying machinery, and processing of agricultural materials and other necessary materials have been distributed. According to the officials in agriculture and livestock in the 1397 the Ministry of Agriculture plans to create 27,400 home gardens for women’s empowerment in the agriculture sector and 1030 cold warehouses and will provide 17,216 poultry farms, and women who are interested in beekeeping will also distribute 600 bee boxes and in coming year there will be 21 centers for food processing and 12 fruit processing centers.